Cool time lapse of wing construction

Tucked underneath a tent at Pier 30-32, the Emirates Team New Zealand shore crew is busy assembling the wing for their AC72, which they hope to take for its first sail on San Francisco Bay as soon as tomorrow.

A video from the team shows a cool time lapse of the wing being assembled, and includes interviews with wing trimmer Glenn Ashby of Australia and wing construction manager John Douglas of New Zealand.

“The main spar, what we call W1, we’ve bolted that together. That’s the first operation,” says Douglas. “Once that’s together we could put the full flaps on, then come through and start connecting the control lines and the other 101 bits and pieces, hydraulics, electronics, etc.”

“Now’s the time to go through and double check everything; also to see if there’s been any wear and tear on the parts before we get using it again,” says Ashby. “There’ve been a few little things we’ve replaced but all in all it’s fundamentally exactly the same wing we used in Auckland.

“Hopefully later in the week we’ll get the opportunity to get out and stretch everything.”